Red hazmat suits feature at North Korea’s toned-down parade

North Korea celebrated the nation’s 73rd anniversary with a late night parade on Wednesday. What caught everyone’s attention was soldiers, civil defense forces and troops wearing gas masks and red hazmat suits during the parade. Known for its past militaristic displays, this year’s parade was a toned down event.

The parade — overseen by leader Kim Jong Un, wearing a cream suit and visibly slimmer than he was at the start of the year — centred around paramilitary organisations and public security forces protecting Pyongyang instead of the major military units that handle the most important weapons of Kim’s nuclear and missile arsenal.

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In January and October parades last year, North Korea had rolled out of its most provocative strategic weapons threatening Asian rivals and the American homeland.

According to the state media reports, the event was aimed at a domestic audience instead of displaying the country’s growing military might to the United States.

Experts believe that the toned-down event reflected the harsh challenges facing North Korea as its broken, mismanaged economy is further strained by unending US-led sanctions, prolonged border closures because of the pandemic, and flooding that caused food shortages in recent years.

Photos released by the state media show Kim smiling widely and waving from a balcony at Kim Il Sung Square, which is named after his grandfather who founded the nation in 1948. There had been expectations that North Korea would show off missiles and other important weapons to pressure the Biden administration over the diplomatic freeze with the U.S. after Kim failed to leverage his arsenal for economic benefits during the Trump years.

But the latest parade shows that the North is too preoccupied with its domestic problems to attempt provocative messaging in foreign policy, said Hong Min, an analyst at South Korea’s Institute for National Unification.

(With inputs from Associated Press)